Getting Out Of My Funk

This weekend we took a road trip to visit some family.  It was a lovely time.  But, the kids didn't nap.  They were too busy watching DVDs in the van (spoiled children and spoiled parents who got to have an actual conversation for 1.5 hours).  They were overtired and didn't nap yesterday again and are currently not napping right now.

This all means that they are on bad behavior and so am I.  At least I was.  I'm trying really hard to go back to my better self.

This morning I was really dreading the week ahead.  We're getting ready to take a much bigger road trip to travel and visit my husband's parents, brothers...  I'm not dreading the visit.  Just the packing.  And I always get really nervous about the drive.  When I was little I was a major worrier and I've shed most of those worries but for some reason I still get nervous about wrecking when we travel.

Anyways, I was in a funk.  I read a really good blog post that reminded me I should be praying for help.  I don't normally feel this overwhelmed.  Perhaps I'm under some sort of attack.  Anyways, I offered up some prayers to my usual crew of saints and went back to feeding the baby.

Afterwards I checked my email and I had the best surprise waiting for me.  My husband (who has shouldered the bulk of my funk) sent me the sweetest poem to cheer me up.  I think only other poem he wrote me was when we got engaged 9 years ago.  So needless to say I was surprised and teary and happy.  Then I started to wonder if my saint-friends had played any part in this lovely consolation.  Shout out to St. Therese, St. John, St. Anne, St. Joachim, and Our Lady!

I had to get some groceries and decided I could use a little treat as an uplift.  I remembered Rachel Balducci commented on some peppermint mocha creamer, and that seems to be doing the trick!

I'm taking it easy today.  I have a hundred million things to do.  But it's not even worth it to do any right now.  There is a two-year-old birthday girl crying in her room because she'd rather play than nap.  Next door, the resident three-year-old is reading books instead of napping, so you know he'll be bananas tonight at the birthday party.  I think I'd better store up my energy for things to come.

I'm also planning a night out with myself tomorrow.  I've got ravioli in the freezer and some sauce thawing out so I can whip up dinner as soon as my husband is home and then run away.

I'd better wrap this up so I can fit in some extra prayers before I have to give in and let the children loose to tackle each other and scream and wake the baby and all that good brother-sister stuff.

I'm sharing this because I know we all have bad days.  Sometimes we need to take a break from life so that we can re-enter it with love and charity.

P.S. That list of virtues on the fridge is helping a little, too.